Pittsburgh begins issuing fines for red-light camera violations
For the first time, drivers in the city of Pittsburgh can be fined if an automatic camera catches them running a red light. Sunday marked the first time the city is issuing fines and citations for the offense.
The red-light cameras now operating are at Saw Mill Run Boulevard and Woodruff, Penn Avenue and Dallas Avenue and East General Robinson and Anderson Street.
Citations and $100 fines will be mailed. Three more intersections will have red-light enforcement cameras fully up and running at the end of the year.
The ones that started enforcement Sunday are doing so after a warning period. It's being treated similarly to a parking violation, with no points issued to a person's license.
The city hopes the cameras will make the streets safer.
The intersection of Penn and Dallas Avenue in Point Breeze has earned a reputation that neighbors look at with concern.
Neighbor Rohan Ganguli hasn't just seen some accidents there over the years; he's been a victim of one. He said a car that made a right turn on red, which ignored signs not to do so, hit him in the chest while he was walking his dog.
"It flipped me in the air, cracked my jaw, broke three of my ribs," Ganguli said.
Four days in the hospital and rehab later, he's doing okay.
A neighbor pushed the city to help them. Sunday marks the product of that, with enforcement underway at the same intersection.
It's a "relief," he said.
City leaders hope the cameras act as a deterrent, hoping to see a 50% reduction in violations, with a goal of more than 20 cameras installed in the next few years.
Officers will review each case manually to ensure a true violation occurred.
"I know there's drawbacks to, you know, being photographed all the time, but I think there are some good parts to it too," Ganguli said.
For him, that includes avoiding what happened last year after the car hit him and sped off. With no video of the incident, police could not locate the driver.
Now, with the red light cameras, "at least it would have got his plate," Ganguli said.
The cameras do have their skeptics. As one driver told KDKA-TV's crew on Sunday, "Stupidity can't be solved with a camera."
